Lawsuit alleges wrongful death in police shooting

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April 5, 2012 8:54AM (UTC)

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — The parents of a college student who was shot and killed by Pasadena police alleged in a federal lawsuit that their son's death was part of a pattern of abuse by the department and that the investigation "reeks" of a cover up.

Kenneth McDade and Anya Slaughter alleged in the wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit filed Tuesday that the department tried to cover up its wrongdoing in the shooting death of their 19-year-old son Kendrec McDade on March 24.

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Police blamed McDade's fatal shooting on Oscar Carrillo's 911 call claiming he had been robbed at gunpoint by two men. Police said the phone call by Oscar Carrillo led officers to believe McDade was armed when they spotted him in an alley and opened fire after they say he made a motion at his waistband. McDade did not have a weapon.

Police said Carrillo later admitted to lying about the gun to speed up response, but in an interview with KNBC television on Wednesday, the 26-year-old said he really believed the college student was armed at the time.

"I thought they had guns or something or they were going to shoot me," Carrillo told NBC, his face obscured.

Police held Carrillo for six days on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, but prosecutors declined to file those charges.

After being shot multiple times in the chest, witnesses said McDade tried to talk to the officers, according to the lawsuit. Officers handcuffed McDade and he began to "twitch," the suit said. The teen died at a hospital.

Grief still evident in her red eyes and tired stare, Slaughter told The Associated Press that Pasadena police took "her baby."

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Slaughter gave birth to her third child at Huntington Memorial Hospital. A week later she returned to the same hospital because her first-born, Kendrec, died there.

"I want the world to know that he's not what the Pasadena police has portrayed him to be. He was one of those kids who stayed in school," she said.

Kendrec's father, Kenneth McDade, said Slaughter calls her son's cellphone just to hear his voice, and put a pair of shorts he wore just before he died underneath her pillow.

"He doesn't get to watch his little brother grow up. The only thing that was kind of a blessing is that he did get a chance to see his little brother, to hold him and enjoy him for one week," he said, tears rolling down his cheeks.

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The federal lawsuit alleges McDade's death was part of a pattern of abuse and killings of black people in Pasadena at the hands of police, including the shooting death of Leroy Barnes Jr., who was shot 11 times in 2009 by the department's officers.